Secession or Loos??

salam...here we meet again...
Ok, I'll discuss what i understand on last class about that topic. Actually these two ideologies characters are play important role during Art Nouveau era. Although they were under the same influence of their ways of thinking the art, but was completely opposite the ideologies.

Let us check on Secessionist first. What is Secession? Actually is name for several groups of progressive artists that broke away from established and conservative artists' organizations in Austria and Germany.

• The first secession group was formed in Munich in 1892.
• It was followed by the Berlin Secession movement, formed by Max Liebermann in 1892. ( which included such artists as Lovis Corinth. )
• The most famous of the groups, formed in Vienna in 1897 by Gustav Klimt. (favoured a highly ornamental Art Nouveau style over the prevailing academicism.)

At this point, Pn Suzi  mentioned about the Gustav Klimt was formed in Vienna. Let me explain little bit about this guy.

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian, Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects. Klimt's primary subject was the female body.

Klimt was a lightning rod for harsh criticism throughout his career. He either worked in the "wrong" style, was too "vague" for popular tastes or was far, far too "explicit" for Viennese sensibilities. After repeated skirmishes with both the State and the Artists Association, Klimt and ten other like-minded artists formed the Vienna Secession in 1897. Though the group was wildly successful, inevitable personality and style clashes arose and Klimt resigned from the Secession in 1905.

He is best known today for his sensual portraits of women (clothed or otherwise), enhancing his jewel-like palette with gold and silver paints, mother of pearl and bits of real jewelry, and his immense talent as a draftsman.

Let us check on his artwork...

 See, i told you before his primary subject was the female body.

(Judith, 1901, 84 x 42cm, Oil on canvas)

(Mother, 1905, oil on canvas)

(Death and life, 1916, 178 x 198 cm)

(Danae, 1907, oil on canvas)

So....when we look at the Klimt artwork, his artwork famous by elegant gold or coloured decoration, spiral and swirls , and phallic shapes; to conceal the more erotic position of drawings.

Mmmmm....try you imagine this style and put in your lifestyle now....hurm.....interesting? heeheeee...

Ok, now let us check the opposed the secessionist group.....

I begin with Adolf Loo's....who know this guy before...? mmmm...thinking? hee...

Adolf Loos was an architect who became more famous for his ideas than for his buildings. He believed that reason should determine the way we build, and he opposed the decorative Art Nouveau movement.



Adolf Loos, 10 december 1870 - 23 august 1933



Adolf Loos (1870-1933) is an Austrian architect and author of the article Ornament and Crime (1908), in which this anti-secession rejected the ornamentation and curved lines in Viennese jugendstil movement. In his essays, Loos was fond of using the provocative catch phrase and has become noted for one particular essay entitled Ornament and Crime written in 1908, in which he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau.

  

In Architectural theory, Adolf Loos believed that reason should determine the way we build, and he opposed the decorative Art Nouveau movement. In Ornament & Crime and other essays, Loos described the suppression of decoration as necessary for regulating passion. Picture below describe Loo's ideologies...architecture.




Michaelerplatz 3 ("Looshaus") , Vienna

It looks modern on that time...am i right...?? heeee =) At the time, his most controversial. One of the first modern office buildings in Vienna.

See how the diffrent the Loo's architecture compare to others building on that time. This shown the Loo's ideologies is opposed. What Loo's was opposing is, the ornamentation of everyday object and in architecture. To him, too much decoration is a waste of craftsman's energy and time for trend will soon be replace by another. But if function and simplycity is the main focus then the object will be more advance and up to date.

This some of Stylistic features of Homes designed by Adolf Loos featured:

• Straight lines
• Clear planar walls and windows
• Clean curves
• Raumplan ("plan of volumes") system of contiguous, merging spaces
• Each room on a different level, with floors and ceilings set at different heights

In our previous class, Pn. Suzie told us to relate with our practice field by choosing these two ideologies either Secessionist  or Adolf Loo's.  Ermm.......so, I'm on the Loo's side. As an industrial design student, i more prefer on Loo's ideologies for my references.As an industrial designer, i should consider on the practicality and it function compare then aesthetic. I'm not saying that the aesthetic is not important in designing the product. It could come with functionality first then follow by aesthetic aspect. Like "Form Follow Function" it come from function first then follow by form. Aesthetic is also important on the product to attract the consumer to buy or use it, but the ornamentation on that product its not overwhelmed. So from my own word, the Loo's ideologies is "less is more" and its practically to me as an industrial designer to use as references. And again, I'm definitely on the Loo's side.

enjoy the creative process!!!

Owners

Josh Finkle

Tags

coffee table, french nouveau, wood, wood working, table, furniture

 

Coffee table inspired by Hector Guimard and the French Art Nouveau style of the early twentieth century. Birdseye Maple and Mahogany. 2009.

Joy of work...... ??? what do you think about it....

hi all...
we meet  again...=)


What are u doing right now? You enjoy what you are doing ...? I believe most of you enjoy the work you are doing now.....aren't you? =)
if you enjoy the work that you did..it means that you are now in the process of "Joy of Work"..wallaaaalla....
if you don't, sure you will never feel it...

For me the concept of "Joy of Work"  is freedom in some artist towards the process of art work. If we look deeper the meaning of joy of work, joy means a feeling of great pleasure and happiness and work means activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result.


So, for someone who want to produce his art work / design, for sure he has to come accross the process of art work.  And from there, he will enjoy, happy, feel great, glad, passion, excitement in doing what they like. It is all about soul of working process.

For example, a designer in the industrial design process, if they get the job or doing some designing task they should have the soul in doing their work.  If they don't have a soul in doing their task most of the project will be unsuccessful. 

So the designer should have a soul in doing his/her work so that they can get a good result and at the same time feel enjoyable. That's my point of view.

From there on, the concept of 'joy of work' in producing the art work / design was born.

As for me, if someone never come accross the process in producing the art work / design, for sure that particular person never gain an experience and would never feel what is 'joy of work'.  The concept of 'Joy of work' is very important to everybody especially in creating the modern of thinking.


As the result, there freedom in implementing the art work and will create the new directions such as from the great artist :

Hector Guimard

Guimard, Hector (artist) Cabinet from Castel Béranger

20th century, 1899
Furniture, Pear, ash, bronze, mirrored glass
Height: 117"; Width: 93 1/2"; Depth: 19 1/2"
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Purchase, The Sydney and Frances Lewis Art Nouveau Fund, 72.12
© 2006 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 

Antonio Gaudi

Calvet Chair

by Antonio Gaudi

 “If any film could be described as an architectural symphony, it is Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1984 movie ANTONIO GAUDI. Much of the imagery in GAUDI is nothing less than astounding in its beauty and boldness, and the blending of a neo-Gothic mysticism and grandeur with an Art Nouveau line and a surreal apprehension of the power of nature. The erotic connotations of much of the work are so blunt as to be almost shocking.”– Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Art Nouveau

Revival: 1900 - 1933 - 1966 - 1974

Philippe Thiébaut + Marie Dussaussoy, November 23, 2009

Forgotten, discredited even, for many decades, Art Nouveau was rehabilitated in the 1960s in a way that affected the history of art and the art market as much as contemporary creative work (design and graphics). There were many reasons for this revival: tributes paid by the Surrealists in the 1930s, the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition organised by the MoMA in 1940, major exhibitions put on in New York (Art Nouveau. Art and Design at the Turn of the Century, MoMA, 1959), and in Paris (Les sources du XX^e siècle, Musée National d'Art Moderne, 1960).

However, it is not a question of determining the reasons for this renaissance, but of comparing Art Nouveau creations with creative output from 1950 to 1970, in order to highlight the influences expressed in very varied and sometimes unexpected areas, such as furnishings, fashion, advertising, films and even the psychedelic aesthetic.

 Carlo Mollino_bureau, 1950_Paris, centre Pompidou_Musée national d'art moderne-Centre de création industrielle-Philippe Migeat.

Organic design

The masters of Art Nouveau continued to favour a close study of living organisms. Some of these masters produced representations of flora and fauna, stylised to varying degrees. Others went down the route towards abstraction: Carlo Bugatti's "Snail" chair prefigures Günter Beltzig's "Floris" chair and even the famous Panton Chair, created in 1959 by the Danish designer Verner Panton which has since become a great classic of contemporary interior design. As for Carlo Mollino's creative works in the 1950s, they recall the frames of Gaudí's furniture.

Hector Guimard, "Fauteuil", 1903_RMN (Musée d'Orsay)-Patrice Schmidt

Later on, the term 'organic' tended to indicate any object whose characteristics were adapted to the demands of the body and mind of modern man. Organic design stood in opposition to the excesses of an icy functionalism that favoured static, rectilinear structures. The new materials – plastic, fibreglass, polyurethane foam, polyamide jersey - promoted a simplified idiom, based on fluidity and rhythmic freedom. The shapes of Verner Panton (Phantasy Landscape), and Olivier Mourgue (Cellule Cafétéria) invite the user to curl up and let the imagination run free.

Alvar Aalto_Vase Savoy, 1933_Helsinki, Design Museo-Rauno Träskelin_Adagp, Paris 2009

Psychedelism

In 1966, the first psychedelic posters were seen in San Francisco, having first appeared in connection with the rock and pop concerts organised by Bill Graham. The psychedelic graphic designers (Hapshash and the Coloured Coat group, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, etc), with dazzling bravura, introduced everything that Art Nouveau had invented into the domain of signs and images, and appropriated certain themes like hair, the peacock, the androgynous figure or, in contrast, highly sexual figures.

Claude Lalanne_Miroir aux branchages, appart. de Yves Saint laurent, 1974-1985, Londres_Christie's Images Limited 2009_Adagp, Paris 2009

Posters and album covers were a popular medium for this expression. The creative works, whose aesthetic attributes were enhanced through LSD, appealed more to the senses than to reason. They were based on the interplay of curves and counter curves, wild and soft arabesques, and distending the line and liberating colour. Lettering ceased to be independent, following the rhythm of the composition to become part of the fluidity of the image, suggesting the sound waves from rock and pop concerts.

 Antoni Gaudi_Miroir pour La Casa Mila, 1906-1910_RMN (Musée d'Orsay)-René-Gabriel Ojéda

 It's all the rage!

Among the exhibitions that contributed to the revival of Art Nouveau in the 1960s, it was the one dedicated to the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 1966 that was the most successful, particularly with young people. Some people even saw in it the beginnings of underground culture. Reproductions in various media of the most famous works of this artist flooded onto the market, whilst the psychedelic idiom continued to spread. When this came together with the newly fashionable Art Nouveau, it had a great effect on the advertising graphics of the time; contemporary magazines provide us with an extensive overview of this.

Günter Beltzig, chaise Floris, 1967_Vitra Design Museum_Günter Beltzig Playdesign

 Naturalism

In the 1960s, just as in the Art Nouveau period, visual artists joined in developing an alternative and somewhat anti-establishment lifestyle. This became evident in the bold, emblematic works of Allen Jones using female figures in the form of pieces of furniture.

Allen JonesTable Sculpture, 1968_Gallery Mourmans, Maastricht_Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Couverture de la revue Movie, Paula Prentiss dans "What's New Pussycat_14, automne 1965_D.R.

In France, the actions of leading figures like François Mathey, Michel Ragon and Jacques Lacloche encouraged artists to develop their concept of an everyday object that did not depend on design issues but concentrated on the decorative element. At the time, this trend was regarded by art critics as a Baroque revival. In 1966, François-Xavier Lalanne and his wife Claude had made a sensational entrance on to the art scene by reviving the vast Art Nouveau project to seize nature, capture it in all its diversity and return it in all its splendour, but also with a touch of humour, to the everyday setting of 'modern' man.

Albert Angus Turbayne, affiche pour "Peacock", Edition. Macmillan's illustrated standard novels, 1903_Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz - May Voigt

 Bonnie MacLeanAffiche pour le concert The Yardbirds, 1967_Sérigraphie_Galerie Janos_D.R

so as we see n read above we know how it style be more freedom in this area.

For more info about Art Nouveau :

history of this era : http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c19th/artnouveau.htm ,

http://www.arthistoryguide.com/Art_Nouveau.aspx

furniture design in this era : http://www.artnouveaufurniture.com/shop_product.asp?P_prod_id=5

you tube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8PgPvVQcSo , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzvvVgxiFcE&feature=fvw

Design TODAY

"...There is dynamism, a high degree of abstraction and a reconciliation between architecture, technology and nature in Kerrie Luft’s footwear. Inspired by Art Nouveau, Luft’s shoes display a peculiar fascination with movement and at times recall in their elaborate yet delicate heels the work of French architect Hector Guimard or the furniture of interior designer and decorator Eugène Gaillard..."

Cogito Ergo Sum = " I think, therefore i am"

  René Descartes (1596-1650)

Who is Rene Descartes??? Actually he is French mathematician and philosopher, also known as Renatus Cartesius, historical artwork.

Rene Descartes, French mathematician

Descartes' most important scientific works were in mathematics. Descartes created analytical or coordinate geometry, known as Cartesian geometry, in which geometrical problems are converted into algebraic forms so that algebraic techniques may be applied to their solution. He attempted to explain planetary motions in terms of vortices surrounding the Sun, but his theory was later refuted. He is also considered the father of modern philosophy, and stated, "I think, therefore I am" = "Cogito ergo sum".

Rene Descartes' famous "I think, therefore I am"

Cogito ergo sum (French: Je pense donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), often stated as Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum (English: "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am"),  is a philosophical Latin statement used by René Descartes, which became a fundamental element of Western philosophy.


The simple meaning of the phrase is that if someone wonders whether or not he exists, that is, in and of itself, proof that he does exist (because, at the very least, there is an "I" who does the thinking).

The French philosopher whose thinking still ricochets through history

 

L’homme…. These drawings show the influence of Descartes’ knowledge of mathematics and geometry on his perception of how the body works.

Humm....so as a conclusion..The famous French philosophers, Rene Descartes, realized that he could doubt everything he believed.

The only thing left was this statement "cogito rego sum" that he could not doubt. (Doubting it confirmed it: If you doubt that you are thinking, well you are then also thinking!) get it what i mean? heheee....

So he concluded that this statement is the foundation of all truth.
   

Some pointed out that if you are thinking, there has to be something (reality) that you must be thinking about, so thinking could not be the only thing you know for certain. Others deny that knowledge needs any foundation at all. =)

history blog? OMG....

Never thought in my mind that i have to learn Design History. It is a challenge to me. I'll take this opportunity to challenge my self that i can do my best to make sure this subject is fun and knowledgeable.

easy....fun....enjoyable...knowledgeable..... ;-)